Do Not Engage
by Shauds02
Summary: Titans Tower is a big place, easy to get lost in, easy to bump into new people. Stephanie bumps into Kid Devil and they both learn some thing new about his old penpal.
1. Do Not Engage

The Titans Tower was, in a word, big. Why they needed so many floors of rooms, Steph could only guess at. Maybe they'd expected more of those kids that had come and gone over the past year to stay, but this time, it was the Titans who were rejected. Or they had some huge parties and needed the place for people to sleep it off afterwards. There was no way of knowing and, as entertaining as the reasons behind it were to think about, it didn't really help any with her current problem.

More than just big, the place was near as twisty as Gotham's back alleys and also like those alleys, not very easy to navigate if one wasn't already familiar with the layout. A really good setup in the case of the intruders the Teen Titans had to deal with every other month, but not so welcoming to guests either. Not that Steph would have ever called them exactlywelcomingto her per se .

Taking all of that into account, it wasn't entirely Steph's fault that she got lost in the place on her way back to her assigned guest room. What she would, however, take full responsibility for, was that her rush to find that room resulted in her moving a bit too fast, resulted in her not paying enough attention to where she was going, resulted in... this.

Dozens of envelopes and sheets of paper fluttering down the staircase she'd been descending and a very confused... she thought this one was Kid Devil, on his but at the foot of those stairs with a near empty cardboard box in his arms.

"Oh my god I am so sorry." Steph said, hurrying to pick up some of the letters. "I was trying to find my room, and this place wassobig and I..."

"Wait, wait, wait." He yelled, waving his arms and leaping to his feet and startling Steph into dropping the letters she'd gathered. He flinched at her response. "Sorry, they're just, sort of old and fragile" he said more softly, there was a gentleness to the way he picked up the letters himself, tucking some of the well worn pages into corresponding envelopes they seemed to have escaped from in the fall escaped from in the fall.

"If I'm really careful?" She waved her hands on either side her face. "I got dainty, detective's hands."

"Yeah, sure." He offered her a shy grin, showing off the orange glow that was apparent even through his teeth.

"Cool." Steph replied, glad for the mask that hid at least some of how embarrassed she was and gathered some of the letters, careful as when she'd helped Batman gather evidence as Robin. "Again, so, so sorry. I was a little lost, and I didn't think anyone would be around here."

"Neither did I." He said. "It's kind of why I was taking this route."

"Oh." Steph nodded. "Don't want your friends to get a look at all of your love letters?" If her face had been visible, Steph might have waggled her brows.

Kid Devil snorted and shook his head. "Nah, these are all from a penpal I had when I was a kid." He accepted the stack of letters Steph handed him and slotted them back onto the box.

Steph might have left it at that, thinking he probably just didn't want to get run over by any of his more rowdy teammates like he had been by her. Then the next thing she picked up was a picture. An old polaroid, worn as the rest, of Robin posing as dead in the mouth of that huge t-rex down in the Batcave. The Robin wasn't Tim, and the picture didn't look like it could have been from when the first one was that small, it obviously wasn't Steph herself, and unless there was some other one she'd never heard about, process of elimination dictated it had to be... Oh boy.

"So, just a penpal, huh?" Steph passed him the picture, and looking at it turned his lips up in an amused smile before he tucked in into an envelope. "That's pretty cool, why hide it?"

"People..." he trailed off, looked up at Steph, then quickly away from her, his brows furrowed. "They say bad things about him now, and..." he picked up a few more letters. "he was my friend, I mean, if you asked me, he was cool." That made a little more sense, if Steph had been the Red Hood's penpal when she was a kid, she wouldn't exactly be shouting it from the rooftops either. "I always thought his family would make them stop eventually, but now..." he closed the box and pressed down the no-longer sticky tape along the middle. "I just, don't want to have to hear those thing's again." Now that, and the resentful tone he'd used, it made a little less sense, but it was kind of interesting to get another perspective on the guy. "Want me to take you by the kitchen?"

"Yeah, thanks." Steph brushed some of the dust from the letters off her knees when she stood. "You think they're lying or something?"

"I think, you shouldn't say stuff like that about someone who can't defend themselves anymore." He held the box carefully, like something precious and locked eyes with her. "And Iknowhe wasn't like that and they..." His fingers dug into the box, leaving dents in the cardboard. "They didn't even tell me when he died, I couldn't go to the funeral or anything, I didn't evenknowuntil after there was a new one, and I waited so long for another letter." Geez, harsh much? She knew Batman was cagey, but really?

"Yeah, I know those guys, they don't do much of the telling-people-things thing." She rolled her eyes, trying not to think about the way it stung to learn that she'd been kept out of the loop, that she'd only be included if she was part of a club that she'd never be let in to. "If it makes you feel any better, they never told me much eith..." Wait, if they didn't tell Kid Devil when Mister Dawn of The Dead was curtain called... Oh no "Bet you uh, would have liked to see him again.

"Well, yeah sure, " his face scrunched up at her question, not in that 'the girl I'm talking to asked a dumb question' kind of look, but this one made her feel almost as bad.Godthey were assholes. "but I'm also kind of glad you know, that he's not around to hear what..."

"Jason Todd is alive."

"What?"

Yeah, maybe she shouldn't have blurted that out like that, but she was in it already, might as well swim deeper. "Your penpal?" Maybe he just didn't know the name, she hadn't until a while ago either.

"I know who he was, but he, is?."

"Yeah he is, crawled up out of his coffin - probably not literally - ," hopefully not literally, "and went Pet Cemetery on Gotham's underworld. "A little too late for Steph, but she had the image she'd gotten from the Batcave of Black Mask making like eggs and scrambling from a rocket launcher and nobody could ever take that away from her.

"And, it's really him?" He sounded, somewhere in the vicinity of hopeful, but there was something else there.

"I think so?" It sounded like a question, she hadn't meant for it to sound that much like a question.

"How long?"

"I really don't know much, but a couple years maybe?"

"A couple years!" He yelled, then looked at her for a couple of seconds, unblinking, and his eyes narrowed sharply. "That ass." He shook his head, his lips curled in a scowl that seemed very out of place on his face.

"Listen, I shouldn't have told you, he's..." She sighed and lifted up her face mask to actually let the guy look at her. "I just thought you deserved to know, but he's on Batman's 'do not engage' list, that's the list he putJokeron. You know what that means?"

"Can you hold my letters?" He pressed the box into her hands, then pointed down one of the halls. "Kitchen's down that way."

"Hey Kid!" She called after him, but he was already gone. Steph huffed. Batman hadn't been able to find Jason Todd in all this time, and she'd never heard of Kid Devil being some great detective. Then again, she'd never heard of Jason Todd having friends in the hero community either so, that wasn't saying much. Maybe it would be better to tell someone. She felt the weight of the box in her hands, thought of the way he'd held it. Maybe she'd just go after him herself instead. "Do not engage means donotengage!"

000

There were a lot of time, over the past four years, and even before, that someone saw fit to tell Jason he was going to hell, that they hoped a demon dragged him off. He doubted,sincerelythat any of those someone's had ever meant it literally.

Even with everything Jason had seen in his lives, of all the thing's he'd thought would happen to him, being tackled off of a rooftop by a very loud, sort of happy, sort of mad, very demonic looking demon guy was maybe at the last.

"A couple ofyearsJason?!"

The purple girl showing up to separate them minutes later was a very close second.


	2. No One Gets Shot

"A couple ofyearsJason!?" Eddie was yelling his hands wrapped around the throat of someone who was supposed to be dead. who he'd thought for years was dead, more to hold him in place make sure that he as there and not about to slip into the night and vanish forever. "You couldn't take a minute to call or send a damn postcard! My number waslisteda couple years ago!"

Eddie didn't get a reply, he got a sharp pain in his neck and his hands loosening without his consent. "Come on, lets not make the scary murder hobo mad." Spoiler, she'd followed after him and was now grunting as she dragged him away from Jason.

Eddie didn't care about making Jason mad, Eddie was mad, he was madder than he'd been since he'd confronted Dan about Marla, and Jason, - too big, and looking just different enough that if Eddie had passed him on the street he would have chalked the resemblance up to coincidence - Jason didn't get to look up at him like he had no idea what was going on. Before Eddie could think enough about it, before Spoiler had dragged him out of range, he struck out with his fist and got Jason sprawled on the oily Gotham street.

"What did Ijustsay?!" She shoved Eddie a couple more feet away.

"I don't care." Eddie said there was blood, close to boiling on his hand and falling from Jason's nose that didn't look quite right in the few seconds before Jason's hands went to cover it.'There,'Eddie thought,'Nowhe can be mad.'

"You got your shot in, can we go now?" Spoiler said, trying to tug Eddie away.

It took a couple of seconds before Jason did anything but look at Eddie with squinted, still disbelieving eyes. "Eddie?" He asked, his broken nose making him sound a little like he had a cold.

Eddie felt a little bad when he pulled his arm away from her and marched back to Jason instead. "No, it's Red Evil Santa!" He spat back, he had no intention of running, of letting himself be dismissed again like he had years ago when he'd first found out why he wasn't getting letters anymore. He didn't even care if Jason took out one of those guns he had strapped around his thighs and threatened to shoot him like Spoiler had said he would.

Jason gripped his nose and twisted it into something more like it's original position as he stood. Spoiler put herself between him and Eddie again, looking between them like she wasn't sure which of them she was going have to hold back this time. "The hell are you doing here?

"Kicking your ass for letting me think you were back!" Eddie's hands ached from being balled up too tightly at his sides as he spoke. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to find out you were gone, and then, then I wrote so many letters and I tried to call so many times, but nobody would tell me what happened to you, they wouldn't even talk to me, they just... dismissed me, like, I didn't deserve to know." He felt his eyes growing hot, well hotter, he quickly brushed his arm over them, he didn't need his tears glowing in this darkness. "Like I didn't spend every Sunday for six months waiting in front of the mailbox, like I didn't read every letter I had a thousand times when I found out I wasn't getting another one, because I missed you, and you were friend!" He tried to move closer to Jason, to do what, he wasn't sure, but Spoiler had her hand against his chest, pushing him back again. "I thought you were my friend." He couldn't get his voice to get over a whisper when he spoke over her shoulder. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

"No," Jason averted his eyes, not even a beat of hesitation between his reply and Eddie's question.

"Damn, you really are a bastard." Spoiler spat when Eddie couldn't find his words. "You coulda just shot at us instead and you'da been less of a dick for it."

"I don't have any reason to shoot you right now." Jason shrugged, stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Sorry. Was that all?" He still wasn't looking at them, but at the bright splash of orange paint on the wall, there wasn't anything interesting about it,not interesting enough to take his attention off of someone who'd just attacked him.

"Why?" Eddie asked. "If I don't get to know anything else."

"Not complicated, I just wasn't gonna be told to get lost again." Jason licked his lips, wiped away some more of the blood that had trickled down his face, and watched Eddie, looking for what he couldn't tell or whether Jason found it before he spoke again. "Cause everyone already knew, and I didn't think you'd care anyway, ya think anybody else did?" He scoffed, then cleared his throat, it didn't make his voice any less hoarse. "I was dismissed as thebadone before I was even cold in my grave, even the people I thought were my family just replaced me and moved on." He shook his head. "Nobody missed me, and even if they did, they don't want me now, that's my fault, but..." He sighed and scrubbed a hand roughly through his hair, turning it from moderately tidy to a complete mess of curls as he turned back to the all of the building he'd been tackled off of. "Go home Eddie, you wouldn't understand, you wouldn't understand."

"Yeah Jayce, cause it's not likeIcould possibly understand what it's like when your family doesn't want you, and it's all your fault, right."

A flinch, easily visible stopped Jason dead in his tracks, his hand already halfway to his grapple gun. He let out another sigh, longer and wearier than the first, then he spun on his heel and jabbed his finger at Eddie. "That's bullshit and you know it! Your parents are the pair of asscheeks making up the biggest ass in whatever place is at the mercy of them sitting down now, that'snotyour fault."

Eddie could see his eyes now, and now he took note, they were three shades too green from the grey he remembered, but there was no other difference, and there were still streaks glistening on his face..

Eddie reached around Spoiler to grab Jason's outstretched hand and tugged him closer, Jason yelled, started to push away, stopped when Eddie didn't try to strangle him again and let Eddie pull him into a hug, but left his arms hanging by his sides.

"I wouldn't have told you to get lost." Eddie said softly, then winced slightly when he added. "Andm'sorryIbrokeyournose."

"Needed something to clear my head after all those months of universe jumping bullshit."Jason let his head drop to Eddie's shoulder, he returned the hug very briefly, then pulled away. "But listen, we really can't be here right now." He peered out at the darkened buildings across the street.

"Why is there something wrong?" Eddie shifted so he was blocking Jason off from whatever it was he was looking for there.

"It's the Bowery at night." Jason shook his head and stepped out from behind Eddie. "And," he gripped the edges of his jacket and tilted his head, "it's a little awkward with you friend right over there."

Eddie turned quickly to where Spoiler seemed to be trying to melt into a wall. "Right." He chuckled nervously and stepped just outside of Jason's personal bubble, and he thought he head what might have been a 'thank God' from Spoiler's direction. "This is Spoiler, she's the one who told me you were back when she found out I didn't know. She's cool."

"And tagged along to make sure you weren't murdered by the reverse grave robber, huh?"

"Andshe doesn't like it when people talk about her like she 's not here too." Spoiler crossed her arms, and leaned forward, even with the mask covering her face, Eddie could tell she was staring Jason down. "Remind me again which of you I kept from getting murdered tonight, Mister Reverse Grave Robber?"

"Aren't you s'posed to be dead?" Jason asked, bending nearer to her.

"Look who's talking." She scoffed at him.

"Ha." Jason hitched his shoulders and blinked down at her, then back to Eddie. "If you say she's cool."

"Okay, you two don't look like you're going to kill each other any more, can I go now?" She said, rubbing pulling on her hood.

"You don'thaveto." Eddie said. "Right Jayce?" If she hadn't told him, he'd probably never have found out about Jason, and it wasn't fair to cut her out now, especially considering that no one told her things either.

"Actually, we shouldallgo now. Bowery. Night." Jason started walking backward down the street. "Come on, there's this place a couple blocks up that wont pay too much attention to either of you."

"Yeah okay." Eddie started following after Jason, then stopped to ask Spoiler, "You coming?"

"I'm already here, so might as well." She shrugged, and fell into step with Eddie. "Long as there's no more strangling."

"I'm still kinda mad, so maybe be on the look out for that." Eddie swung an arm around Jason's shoulder and held up a finger in front of his face.

"Eddie, I still have a gun." Jason rolled his eyes, but didn't throw Eddie's arm off.

"If you shot me you wouldn't have any friends." Eddie pointed out and Jason sighed wearily.

"Don't worry too much, m'still here to protect you." Spoiler patted his back.

"Y'know, I changed my mind, think Ima just go home." Jason tried to shuffle his way out from between the two of them.

"No your not, you still need to tell me about the universe jumping thing,hot damnthat's cool." Eddie tightened the arm around Jason's shoulders.

"Good gracious that's a long story." Jason raised his eyes heavenward. "Last time I ever go to a funeral."


	3. Be Back Soon

They went for pancakes - smothered in syrup and cream - caught up a little - incredibly awkward with how little either of them were really willing to talk about - and there was no more physical violence involved which was more than could be said of most social interactions Jason tried to engage in. Not that he'd really expected much more violence on Eddie's end, Jason had been more concerned about himself with that, maybe with Spoiler, maybe any of the other costume run-around about Gotham wondering where she and Kid Devil had gone.

"Be back soon," Eddie said when it was over, with a grin that's cheeriness wasn't offset by either fangs it revealed, or the way it literally lit up his face in the alley behind the diner.

"Just go make sure they don't think I mugged you." Jason kept his tone casual was he waved them off.

"Technically, couldn't we kinda saywemuggedyou?" Spoiler said, pulling her face mask down now she'd finally finished clearing away the copious amounts of syrup she'd gotten on the fabric. "Attacked you in the Bowery and took your money?" She cocked her head at them.

"Don't you dare."Jason warned, but couldn't find the heat to put behind it.

She chuckled and patted his cheek. "See you 'round McHostage."

That was exactly the story she was going to tell, he knew it, and Eddie wasn't going to refute it.

"I'm not buying you pancakes again." Jason yelled at the fiery... portal? Eddie had opened.

She waved again, her hand slipping away the last of them he saw, and then they were gone. The alley was quiet, cold as Gotham always was on the cusp of another storm. Soon the background noise - cars, sirens, chatter and shouts - rushed in to fill the silence they'd left. It'd been nice while it lasted. Jason tugged up the collar of his jacket against the wind, tucked his hands into his pockets, and started on his way to his nearest heated safehouse.

He got to the end of the alleyway when the ring of fire appeared in front of him again and Eddie came stumbling out. Literally stumbling, he took one step and fell over.

"Gopher!" Jason caught him before he could hit the wet, grimy asphalt. "What the hell?"

"No one calls me tha' 'nymore." He slurred and looked up at Jason with half-lidded eyes, then turned away with and let Jason pull him back to his feet.

"What happened?" Jason asked, circling Eddie, looking him over for injuries.

"Said I'd be back soon." Eddie said, running his forearm over his eyes. "Stop that." He batted Jason's prodding hands away from his head. No obvious signs of concussion, but... "Just been teleporting all day." He planted a hand on his hip and gave Jason a thumbs up. "All good now."

"You sure?" Jason didn't move to far from Eddie, kept his arms out, ready to catch him again juts in case.

"They're my powers, Jayce, I know how to handle them." Eddie jabbed the thumb at his own chest. "So what're we..." He took a step out of the alley and tipped over.

Jason sighed deeply and thanked his paranoia that he hadn't been able to keep from wearing the heat resistant padding under his t-shirt.

000

"I swear you used to be smarter." Jason shook his head and kicked the fridge closed, then slid the glass of orange juice across the island to Eddie.

"Wasn't sure I'd find you again." Eddie took a big gulp of juice, and then a bite of toast.

Jason ignored the sting he felt a at that, folded his arms and leaned against the counter where he would keep a close eye on Eddie. "I meant thatrecruitmentdrive bullshit." He'd seen some pretty messed up side effects of exhaustion over the years, some particularly nasty one from metas, it didn't hurt to be cautious. "You know what that sounds like, right?"

Eddie sank down a little on the on the chair Jason'd pulled over from the the living room. "It's not like that, a lot of kids need the Titans, and we're really short on members right now, so..."

If it were kids that needed the Titans, the Titans wouldn't need recruitment drives. It wouldn't have a higher turnover rate then the damn Justice League. Jason pressed a hand over the bridge of his nose and held back a sigh. This was an argument he'd had many times, one he'd never won, getting into a screaming match wasn't going to help anything. Eddie had survived getting his torn open, h could teleport, he'd be fine. Jason scooped up the empty glass and brought it back to the fridge for a refill.

"Not like anyone was was interested." Eddie shrugged and accepted the glass, brought it to his lips along with the toast, then stopped halfway through the motion. "Or... Hey, your technically still a Teen, right?"

Jason couldn't stop the laughter that broke out from his chest at that, at the very idea that he would ever so much as consider that, so much asbeconsidered, ever. "Not a chance in this or any universe, K.D."

"Was worth a shot."

Eddie said, turning his nose up at Jason. He he popped the last piece of toast into his mouth. "And it's actuallyRedDevil now."

"Well, no one's ever accused you of being a coward." Jason took the plate to rinse the crumbs off it and heard the scraping of Eddie pushing his chair back from the ground. "And is R.D gonna pass out on me again?"

Eddie's chuckle was nervous. "Nah, R.D's good, just needed a boost. Man this is weird."

"Nah, I get attacked by demons every other night."

"I can't even tell of you're joking." Eddie said and hopped up to sit on the counter. "Guess it's notthatweird anymore, but still, I just never thought, you'd be, you know."

"Yeah." Jason dried the plate and stacked it with the others. "I know." Jason wouldn't have believed it himself if someone had told him at fifteen that this was what he'd be. "I woulda told you, if I'd thought..." Jason pressed a hand against his eyes and huffed.

"M'not mad about that anymore." Eddie was swinging his legs, looking out the window at the stormy city. He was like something out of a B grade horror movie, just like he'd wanted when he'd been a kid, and he was still the most like what Jason remembered out of all of them. "Well I am, I guess, but it's not at you."

"Thanks." Jason ducked his head and stepped around the island for the doorway. "So, we haven't tried to beat the crap out of each other yet, and I have no idea what we do now"

There was a thump of Eddie's feet hitting the floor and he was following after Jason. "I wanted to watch Ballistic: Ecks vs. Server the other night, and Amy kind of looked like she wanted to beat the crap out of me for it."

"You hate that movie."

"How do yourememberthat?"

"Hard to forget when you practically wrote me an essay on it."

000

Four odd years would be a long time for anyone. For people who lived like Jason and Eddie, who'd changed as much as they had in that time, it was pretty much an eternity. So much had happened, more than either could have guessed at and a lot that neither of them easily understood. So they talked.

They talked about Dan and Aunt Marla and the multiverse and the Titans. More about Eddie than about Jason, because whenever conversation turned to the older of the two, he'd find a way to steer it back around.

The movie played in the background, both of them paying more attention to each other and the bowl of popcorn between them than the screen. Eddie joked about how between the pancakes, the toast and now the popcorn, it seemed Jason was incapable of conversation that wasn't over food. Jason flipped him off and shoved a hand of popcorn in his mouth in lieu of a reply. Eddie brought up the swear jar he and Rose had made use of at the tower, when she'd still been there.

When the movie was over, they swapped it out for something equally bad and put it just loud enough to block out the sounds of the storm that made Gotham at daytime dark as twilight. And then they talked about Twilight and Eddie felt terrible about subjecting Jason to the horror.

"Can't believe you found the vampire hunter world and it's the old-timey one you wanted to stay in." By that point, Eddie was only half on the couch, having slid down lower and lower to the ground over the course of the night h had to look past his shoulder to see Jason. Or maybe not, it actually did sound a lot like'Extra Credit History Assignments For Fun Jason.'

"Yeah." Jason had chuckled, only half awake himself and curled up in two thirds of the couch, Eddie suspected it had been a while since he'd slept at all. "Kyle got infected there." He linked his fingers and stretched his hands up and over his head. Eddie rolled his eyes and dragged the bowl of cold, and now too salty popcorn off the couch and onto his lap. " But can hunt vampire's here."

Eddie hummed in agreement and massaged his tired eyes, turned them lazily to the screen where a bunch off teenagers were shrieking very unconvincingly about a witch. "You wanna hunt a vampire?" Eddie slid still further off the couch, and this time Jason's legs uncurled a little to claim the space Eddie had vacated.

"No m'sleeping." Jason yawned and buried his face in the armrest, he looked a lot more comfortable than Eddie, who gave in and let himself fall the rest of the way to the ground. The carpet was soft too, well soft enough, Eddie didn't have the energy to get up and reclaim couch space. "Do it with the Titans."

"Titans don't hunt things." Eddie yawned too, great, he'd caught it from Jason and now he was going to fall asleep too. "We just kind of..." He flopped a hand in circles as the yawn winded down, "Get attacked by supervillains 'n stuff."

"So heroic." Jason scoffed, then he shifted so he was laying on his back, eyes on the ceiling, abruptly tense and nowhere near as comfortable as he'd been a moment ago. "Speaking of, you gonna be heading back soon?"

"No, I don't..." Eddie turned around, so he was kneeling, facing the couch and Jason. "I can hang a little longer."

"Ah." Jason nodded once, scrubbed a hand over his face before folding both arms behind his head and closing his eyes.

"Unless." Eddie bit down on his bottom lip, shifted his gaze quickly to the door and back, something heavy and cold settling on his shoulders. Jason hadn't expected Eddie to be back right after dropping Spoiler back at the tower, he knew that, and then, Eddie had been here for hours already, he knew he could be a little inept at telling when he'd worn out his welcome. "Did youwantme to leave you alone?"

"No." Jason said, a deep line having appeared between his eyes and his lips set in a frown. "I wouldn'twantyou to go." He rolled his shoulders, a nervous gesture that didn't fit him "Just figured, you had thing's to do, n you'd wanna get back 'fore they knew you were..." He motioned at himself and then around at the apartment. "Y'know."

"I don't." Eddie tucked some strands of hair behind his ear and shifted away from the couch to keep the sudden spike in his body temperature from burning it up. "And I know you don't really thing I'd ditch you for such a dumb reason." He fixed his eyes on Jason and tried to smile, he was good at that. "I swear you used to be smarter."

Jason finally looked at Eddie, blinked owlishly at him with eyes so wide, Eddie might have thought it was funny if it hadn't made him turn every bit of the carpet he was touching to charcoal. Then Jason snorted and shook his head as he rolled off the couch. "I gotta fire-proof this apartment sometime."

"Yeah, that's a really, really good idea." Eddie winced and shifted away from the carpet he'd destroyed.

"Ima grab the fire-extinguisher, you get another movie going." Jason was gone from the room minutes after the sounds of him rifling through the kitchen came to an end.

The room was too dark to be sure, but when he came back in, Jason's eyes were suspiciously red. When he didn't bring it up, Eddie let himself pretend it was because his friend was short a couple hours too many of sleep.

They didn't do much more talking that night, but that was fine, there'd be plenty more time for catching up on others.


	4. The Window Was Open

Jason woke slowly, as he so rarely did anymore, his body cramped from sleeping on the couch and the TV playing at a much softer volume than it had been every other time he'd woken in this position. He rolled over to better accommodate the stretching he needed to feel normal again and let out a yawn that brought attention to how much his face felt like he'd used to try catching a truck. That last part wasn't unusual, it wasn't why he'd stilled.

No, that was because he'd thrown his arm over the side of the couch, and it hadn't it the carpeting. It hit something hot and soft, and…

"Eddie." Jason didn't expect an answer when he turned his head to look down at the form spread out on the floor besides his couch.

It came anyway. "Hm." Eddie hummed, then muttered something unintelligible as he scratched at the sand in his eyes. Eyes that glowed when they slipped open. Wow, yeah, that would take some getting used… to.

He was still here.

"Whatza time?" Eddie yawned and turned on his side, his arms wrapping around the pillow he'd had at his head.

"Uh…" Jason blinked down at Eddie, sure for a the span of a heartbeat that this was his mind messing with him again. Then Eddie poked the hand that was still touching him and Jason flung the thought far away from him fast as he snatched back the limb. "Late, I think." He whispered it, as if keeping his voice low would keep those parts of his mind from hearing. It was definitely late, Jason could tell just by how well rested he felt despite the pains, he hadn't slept this long in a while. "Gotta get home before the gossips find out where you spent the night at a criminals place, what will people think?".

Jason meant it as a joke, but he could tell right away that it didn't have the desired effect.

"Yeah I guess." Eddie let out a heavy sigh and set half-lidded eyes to the carpet he'd fallen asleep on.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jason just stopped himself from reaching out, and instead folded his arms under him used them for support when he leaned over to better see Eddie.

"You keep saying stuff like that, like I should feel bad for not wanting, and I don't…" Eddie huffed and even with half his face hidden, Jason found the look on it almost physically painful. "I'm not gonna feel bad about it, and…" He looked up at Jason. "You said you wanted me to stay, but if you still need time alone do I don't wanna force you to keep me here."

"It's not like that." Jason said, the words leaving his mouth as soon as Eddie was done speaking. "I just don't want you to feel like you have to stay just because I'm alone here." Jason smiled, but he knew he didn't have much comfort to put into it and he was sure it came off as more of a grimace. "Cause you're not alone anymore, you have the Titan's and it's not like they won't have a reason for wanting to keep away from me. I'd hate myself," not like that had been hard over the past couple of weeks, "if I messed that up for you."

"Yeah, but I already know all that, an I told you I'm not worried." Eddie's smile, soft though it was on his lips, held so much more than Jason's had. "I've been a Titans for more'n a year now, I know them, and sure, everything's not perfect, but I know I can go back whenever and they'll still be there, you, " his breath hitched and he pressed a hand to eyes that had gotten bright in a way that had nothing to do with their otherworldly glow. "It's still so hard to believe you're real, I'm so scared I'll take the chance, and you'll be…"

"Stop." Jason's wasn't aware he'd closed his hand around Eddie's wrist until he felt the scalding hot tears against his own skin. "I'm real." Eddies eyes opened wide and Jason tightened his hold. "Sometimes, lately, it's been hard for me to believe it too, but since you knocked me off that roof, I've hardly thought about that at all. You, and even Spoiler, awkward as that was, made me feel so much more like I'm really here than I have in, in so long, Eddie. I want you here as long as you'll stay, just…" Jason swallowed, his mouth gone unexpectedly dry, "please don't lose everything you have now because of me."

Eddie slid his wrist free and slid it up to rest on Jason's shoulder. "I already told you, I'm not worried about that. And even on the tiniest chance I was, it wouldn't be losing everything cause I'd still have you, right?"

Jason didn't get the chance to answer. Before he could even formulate anything he could possibly have said in response to that, another voice chipped in from somewhere behind him.

"Oh my god."

It was Eddie, who's view wasn't blocked by the back of the couch who let out the startled scream, so Jason could be forgiven for assuming something dangerous had appeared behind him. He rolled off the couch grabbing hold of Eddie and pushing the boy behind him as he rose up in a ready crouch and tossed the nearest object – a pillow, because he hadn't had the time to stash any weapons nearby last night – at the intruder.

The squeak said intruder made when she went flying into the kitchen with the force of the blow was… unexpected, even more unexpected was the fit of laughter that overtook her right after.

"Spoiler?" Eddie called out, dumbstruck, slowly moving around Jason.

Jason got back on the couch to look at the girl practically rolling on his floor. "What the fuck?"

"That was the corniest thing…" here she had to pause to catch her breath and rise up into a mostly seated position and press her masks across her eyes, "… I've ever seen in real life." She seemed to get herself under control and pulled the mask off completely. "You guys are adorable."

"How did you even get in here?" Jason asked as he looked back to Eddie, then at the girl again.

"The window was open," Spoiler shrugged, her wide eyes the picture of innocence.

"No it wasn't." Jason never left his windows open, half the people he was avoiding used windows more often than they did doors, he was still too careful for… Eddie shifted uncomfortably next to him. Jason huffed and rolled head that way.

"I forgot to close it after I set the carpet on fire last night." Eddie chuckled softly, nervously.

"Looks like I worried for nothing." Spoiler dusted off her suit and stood up. "So, you guys have fun last night?" She grinned at them, and leaned in closer to the boys, when neither of them responded, she deflated a little, one hand reaching out to lightly pat Jason's cheek. "Your uh, face looks a lot better."

Which reminded Jason that his face didn't really feel that much better. "Thanks." He deadpanned and kept himself from poking at it again. Ouch.


	5. For The Nachos

Dick knew Jason was back, heard nothing more from Donna than that he'd been hurt and unstable when he'd left her and Kyle, no they hadn't been able to find him, and nobody'd heard anything since. At least, no one who was talking. Dick contemplated sometimes, when he wasn't too busy with the myriad of other things that required his attention, looking for Jason, but never seriously. No need to go looking for trouble when there was so much of it to be had.

He never got the chance. Turned out the next he heard of Jason was a picture Bab's sent him on patrol one night.

'It's less than an hour old."

The Red Hood, or someone who looked very much like him, his body obscuring the unfamiliar diagrams scrawled on the blood soaked ground beneath him. Low as the quality of the picture was, he could tell that way, way too much blood must have gushed from whatever it was that had been shoved into the second Robin's chest.

"Is it real?" He asked not a moment after his comm went off, already heading for the memorized co-ordinates attached to the picture he couldn't bring himself to look at anymore. It couldn't be. The Red Hood had walked off a stroll through the multiverse not two months ago. He'd a being that by could be called a god by some definitions, weary enough to avoid a confrontation with him. He was just off causing trouble somewhere, doing something that now with Bruce gone, would be Dick's job to clean up. Whenever, wherever this picture had come from, it wasn't Jason it could have been anyone under the helmet.

'I don't know.' Barbara replied, the computer generated voice of Oracle clear and clinical as anything. 'What are you going to do?'.

Dick didn't know, real or something else, he didn't have an answer. "Keep the others away until I've…" he sucked in a breath that did nothing to ease the unexpected… whatever that was in his lungs, he didn't think about it, "confirmed," he finished. That was all he could do, if it was real, then it was already too late for anything he did about it to matter. He sped there anyway.

ooo

The body was gone, pillars, walls floors and even ceiling of the underground parking lot scorched and stinking heavily of sulfur so strong it stung Dick's eyes. If there had been anyone nearby in the last hour and fifteen minutes, they were long gone.

He reached up to tap at his comm, but Babs spoke before he had the chance. 'Already searching every camera I can find.'

Dick nodded, though she couldn't see it, and made his way deeper into the empty underground space. It didn't take long for him to find where the body had lain. Dick steeled himself longer than he could have thought he'd need to, before he moved forward to inspect the inked markings. To inspect what little of the markings he could see under the dried blood, in person it seemed like there was more here that it had in the picture, pooled at the center of it and smeared away in what was unmistakably a drag line.

So much blood, but there was no body.

ooo

Now it could have just been Steph, but it seemed to her that the atmosphere around the cave was even more tense and gloomy than usual. She didn't blame them, not in the least, after what all of them were going through now, she was still messed up about her Dad, and she hadn't even liked the guy, she didn't even want to think about how it would feel now if she had.

Still, this was a marked increase even from that. Added to the fact that she hadn't been shooed out when Nightwing had strolled in while she was helping Cass with the technical aspects of some online clothes shopping.

Not wanting to add to whatever was going on, Steph kept quiet but for greeting Tim when he showed up, while Nightwing ran a DNA test on some blood and Barbara watched silently on from a nearby monitor.

"It's a match." He said, his voice carrying that sort of bland calmness that usually meant the one using it was so far in the opposite direction they'd circled right back around.

Steph felt her heart drop when she picked up on the stifled response of everyone else in the cave from the very much unstiffled and easily readable response of her best friend. Open mouthed and wide eyed, when Steph moved forward to somehow comfort her eldest brother, it was clear she was crushed.

Steph might have tried something of the sort herself. But when she drew closer to where Tim stood and she actually got a look at the blurry picture and the results of the DNA test while he and Babs talked about constructing a time frame that veered wildly off what could have been real, Steph was just confused. She was absolutely sure she'd texted him not an hour ago regarding the color scheme of Cass's new skirt.

That lasted a good ten seconds before she learned what they'd been doing and she found herself almost more bemused that anything and had to excuse herself to make a phone call.

ooo

'What did you two do?'

"What?" Eddie bit into his spaghetti sandwich and wedged the phone between his ear and shoulder, not a good idea considering his resting body temperature and the relative fragility of the phone, but it was necessary to get at whatever milk was left. "Hey, are you coming to movie night? And if you are, could you bring over some milk?" The milk carton was regrettably, very nearly empty. "Yeah, we don't have enough for the nachos."

'Yeah sure, wait no, this isn't about movie night Eddie.' She grumbled something he couldn't catch under his breath, but she also sounded just a touch relieved. 'What did you guys do earlier tonight?'

"Oh yeah, you heard about that already." Eddie couldn't help but grin as he set what milk there was on the counter, but he held his chuckle at bay out of consideration for how serious she sounded. "Hot damn we must've scared them more that we thought, and I never thought I'd see that many fancy Italian guys screaming their heads off, I think I saw a… no a couple of em definitely dropped to their knees and actually started praying, pretty sure I got holy water tossed at me, or, something that burned a little, but it was totally worth it." It had been, and after they'd all been so formal and confident going in.

'You did wha…'

"Hold on, I'll send you the recording we took, you've gotta see it, it's the funniest thing you'll ever see in your life!" He abandoned both the milk and his sandwich so he could lean over the back of the couch to scroll through the folder and find the clips with the best angles.

'Wait, it was some kind of prank?'

"Uh huh, Jason's gonna come back in a couple months as a servant of the underworld." Eddie hit send and let himself fall so he was lying on the couch instead. "It's gonna be great. What did you think it was?"

'Eddie, his family thinks he's dead!'

"Huh." That got Eddie to drop his grin completely and he sat up again, something, not quite shock, or any of the things he really would have expected to feel at hearing a sentence like that settling about him. "Are they like, sad or crying or…" He hummed uncertainly, really not sure what he should have felt, but maybe using so much of the stored up blood like that hadn't been such a good idea.

'Yeah, they're sad and crying, RD.' She huffed incredulously, he wasn't sure if it was because she was as surprised as he was, or because she was surprised that he was surprised.

"That Spoiler?" Jason strolled into the kitchen, still in the process of towel drying in now very messy damp hear. At Eddie's answering hum, he nodded and picked up the milk carton. "Hey, could you ask her to bring over some milk?"

"Already did, I'm… Hey, don't drink what little we have left!" Eddie frowned at Jason over the back of the couch.

"It's my milk." Jason paused with the carton already half way to his lips and stopped to clutch it protectively to his chest. "And besides, this much is useless on its own."

"That's not…"

'Could I please speak to Jason?' Stephanie half whined over the phone.

"Sorry." Eddie said and tossed the phone to Jason, who put it on speaker and set it down on the kitchen island so he could freely scrutinize the insides of the fridge himself.

"Yello…"

'Your family thinks you're dead because of whatever you did to whoever you did it to tonight.'

"What's left of that Aquista family." Jason chipped in, just for accuracys sake.

"They cried." Eddie told him."

"Oh yeah? Was it an angry cry, or like a happy cry?" Jason laughed softly didn't seem to have any trouble deciding what he felt about that, and let his amusement be plain for all to see as he finished off the milk. Jerk.

'Yes they cried, sad cried what is with you guys?' She groaned. 'Listen, Ima just show them the clip so they know you're okay, okay?' She paused a couple seconds for an answer,' Okay, bye.'

"Milk!" Eddie called before she could hang up.

'I'll remember.' She replied, and then she was gone.

Eddie hopped back over the couch to retrieve his phone and ask Jason if he'd settled on his movie for the night, but Jason was still looking down at the phone, his face scrunched up and far off like Eddie had only seen it a handful of times since they'd re-met.

"Are you okay?"

Eddie asked and tapped his friend lightly on his shoulder.

Jason sucked in a breath and pulled back like he'd been burned – not hugely unlikely, considering –, but he shook it off seemingly as smoothly as he shook the empty carton a minute lately. "Yeah." He dropped the milk carton in the trash and got the tortillas out of the fridge. "So how big're we gonna make these suckers?"

"Huge." Eddie said and made himself grin. Sometimes, it was better to wait until Jason brought it up himself. "Spoiler picked a food move and we're gonna want to fit all the toppings."

ooo

"It was all just to blackmail a crime family?"

Tim doubted that Dick wasn't saying it to anyone in particular, but Stephanie, standing by his side, holding her cellphone in front of him so he could see the robed devil man bouncing through about the room and setting things on fire, answered anyway.

"Or cause they just thought it'd be funny." She swiped so it started up again, this time from another angle, the image much sharper than the picture Oracle had been able to get, and the body was clearly a very well made latex mannequin. She handed the phone off to Dick and he watched the next clip as intently as he had the previous. "Or both, I dunno, Jason's gonna resurrect as a demon or something later."

"Do I know that guy?" Tim asked, he couldn't make out any features, but the 'assailant' in the clip moved very much like a certain Teen back at the Titans tower. "And where did you get this?" Barbara, with all of her resources, had only been able to find that one blurry image, and while Tim wasn't going to say Stephanie had zero resources, she wasn't the most sought after information broker in the entire super hero community.

"Yeah, it's just Red Devil in a flame retardant raincoat." Stephanie averted her eyes when she replied, a light flush coloring her cheeks. "He just sent it over when I called to ask what happened." She rocked back on her heels. "So, uh, you're all good now, right? It was just an accident and nobodies dead or sacrificed or maimed or anything." Apparently, the bats a little further off in the cave were doing something very interesting. "It's kinda funny, right?" Her tone took up and almost hopeful tone at the end there.

"Very funny." Dick's voice was dry, his face blank, as he unceremoniously slapped the device back in Stephanie's hand and got up from his chair. "The cities in crisis and the Red Hood is playing pranks."

"We haven't ruled out that it was to blackmail the crying gangsters." Stephanie tried as Dick walked by her. She skipped through the clip back to a man who knelt crying as he prayed in the mannequin's blood and she followed after Dick to hold it in his line of sight.

And that was another thing, they'd used a mannequin as a stand in for a body, but covered the thing in real blood, Jason Todd's real blood. It was mind-boggling why they would go through the effort, even more so that this sort of thing reminded Tim a whole lot more of Eddie Bloomberg that it did Red Hood. How would a Teen Titan have gotten mixed up with a Gotham crime lord to the point that they would pull this sort of thing together? "So they're… friends?"

"Oh, yeah, they were pen pals when they were kids." Stephanie paused her trailing of Dick across the cave to answer the question Tim hadn't known he'd voice. "Cute, right?"

"Of course." Dick muttered something that might have been a curse under his breath when he turned to face her. He would have remembered something like that about Jason, maybe not in any great detail, Tim hadn't know, but it must have come up between Dick and Jason at some point. "How long did you know all this without telling anybody?"

"I told Tim." She jabbed he thumb in his direction. "The pancakes, remember."

"I thought she was making it up." Tim tossed up his hands and met Dick's part disappointed, part pained eyes. It had been almost funny at the time too, the way she'd told it, but in no way believable that Jason had needed rescuing from… from Eddie Bloomberg of all people and then gotten the both of them pancakes. "That sounded made up."

"It was one hundred percent factual, no embellishments what so ever." She splayed her hands out before her and scoffed at him

"He would have shot you." Or at least made some kind of attack, he had with just about every other hero Tim had heard of coming into contact with the aggressive former Robin.

"Yeah, I thought so too, but," she shrugged, "Red acted like it was normal, and he technically knows the guy better."

Tim groaned and threw himself into the chair, he didn't want to think about Jason and Eddie, didn't like how odd the idea felt, of Eddie freaking Bloomberg, who was about as antagonistic as the goldfish Tim had had when he was eight, attacking Jason Todd and getting away with it. Getting pancakes for his trouble. "We're so lucky we didn't have the chance to tell Alfred yet." Tim turned to Dick, but the older man was already near the top of the long staircase that lead back up into the house.

"I'm telling Alfred right now." Dick said it like a threat, and even with how tired and worn down he looked, his voice was strong enough to convey that it was a serious one. Tim was surprised to find he was only a hairsbreadth from feeling sympathy for the second Robin. "Thanks for all your help, Stephanie."

"Sure thing." She waved at him, and seconds after Dick vanished through the clock entrance, Stephanie spun quickly away from the doors. "Well, I'm glad I could help you guys sort this out," she said as she backed up to the vehicle bay, "but I promised someone I'd pick something up for em, so I gotta get going."

"Wait, Alfred might have questions." Tim called after her, he had more questions, as if there were any answers that could possibly make him any less confused.

"Yeah I know, but I'm a woman of integrity, and I really did promise, and the nachos rest in my supple hands." Her grin was a bit too wide when she finally reached the bike she'd come in on, almost like she was worried about some… "Oh, and would you mind forwarding that video to Bab's and explaining everything to her? I forgot." She didn't wait for a reply before she jabbed her thumb down on the ignition way harder than she needed to. "Okaythanksseeyalater thanks Tim!" And she sped out of the cave like the wrath of God was on her heels.


	6. Looking

Over the years, Jason had gotten used to it, the way people tensed when he was around; even powerful people who themselves scared the crap out of most everyone else. He hadn't just gotten used to it, in the beginning he'd reveled in it, in how different it was from when he'd been little and tense and always watching everyone around him, wary of danger. Now that it was a constant in his life, expected, he didn't often think of it as a big deal, not until Eddie came literally crashing back into it and that constant was just gone.

Eddie wasn't scared of Jason, not in that way at least, no platitudes or shrinking back. No… keeping as much distance between them as he assumed possible without rising Jason's ire. Eddie was crammed between the edge of the sofa and Jason, half-asleep with one of his legs tossed over both of Jason's, his unnatural body heat and making Jason, trapped between a softly snoring Eddie and one of his superhero friends, feel like he was a lobster in the worlds driest sauna.

And this was the most comfortable Jason could remember being in it didn't bare thinking how long.

"You look like you're gonna die of heatstroke." The previously mentioned superhero friend, spared from Jason's fate by his own acting as a barrier between her and Eddie, whispered as she stretched out besides him.

Jason chuckled and shifted aside, hoping he's come across some patch of his little bit of couch space that was cooler than the rest. "Better than the last way I died."

"Oh, god." She groaned and actually slapped his shoulder lightly. "Here's the great comedian Skeletor with his only punch line. You gotta get some new material man, seriously."

"Shut up, Eddie laughs at my dead jokes." Jason huffed. "And why am I Skeletor now?"

"Eddie feels obligated to laugh at your jokes cause no one else will, means I don't have to." Her eyes flickered from the making of documentary Eddie had chosen - then shortly fallen asleep to earlier in the night because he'd already watched it five hundred times – to Jason and back again. "I've run out of zombie names to call you, so we're moving on to the skeletons."

"No." Jason objected and settled into against the sliver of cooler fabric he'd found. "See, you're doing it to, why do you get to make dead jokes when I'm the one who died?"

"Cause unlike you, I do sometimes make other jokes, and they're awesome enough to balance it out."She rested against him, effectively negating the coolness of the cool spot. "Also, I'm just a genuinely funny person, and on the rare occasion it's not a dead joke, you're the dad jokes guy." She raised a hand, palm turned upwards. "I'm sorry, but you deserve the truth."

"I have good jokes."Jason tried not to think too much about how close she was, he wasn't even used to it from Eddie yet and she didn't have the excuse of knowing him before… everything.

"Prove it then, tell me one good joke, and if it makes me laugh then never again shall we deliberate on this matter ."

"Okay," Jason pressed himself deeper into the couch as he thought, something that was unfairly difficult right then. "Okay, I got one. Ask me if I'm a t-rex."

"Are you a t-rex?" She asked, and from their awkward angle, Jason could just make out the slight, anticipatory smile on her lips.

"No." Jason said and turned his eyes back to the TV.

Stephanie was silent for a few moments still waiting. Then there was a hitch in her breath, and Jason couldn't help but smile.

"Oh my god." She laughed, pressed her hands to her mouth in an attempt at muffling that laugh when it grew a little loud for present, slumbering company. When that didn't work as well as intended, she turned her head into his shoulder as her body shook lightly with mirth. Jason still, again at the unfamiliarity of it, but found, again, that he didn't mind it. "Oh my god." She whispered again, and shook her head, still pressed against him. "That just proves the dad joke point, Jason, that's not even funny, what even was that?"

"Hey, you're the one who laughed at the dad joke, so really, which of us is at fault here?"

"You are, you're horrible. I'm tired, you can't hold my laughing at that against me, it was too adorable."

"Oh, now I'm adorable, am I?"

"Yeah, you're an adorable little Skeletor t-rex." Her scoff turned quickly to a yawn and she left her head against his shoulder when she looked back to the TV.

But for the droning on of the TV, things were quiet for a while. Jason tried to focus on the documentary, but he was too comfortable being uncomfortably hot, here, with other people, and that was all he really could focus on. And that would inevitably lead to him focusing on what it was like without it.

When Stephanie spoke again, Jason jumped to welcome the distraction, until he actually processed what it was that she'd said.

"I didn't get you into any trouble when I told them, did I?"

"What?"

"I didn't think much about it then, cause I'm always waiting until after to think about these things, and now I just keep thinking that the next movie night is gonna be in a jail cell." She puffed out a deep breath and turned her head up to the ceiling. "I just felt so horrible for all of them but I didn't think about how things are between you guys."

"Hey." Jason nudged her with his elbow. "Like I give a damn what those assholes know, I'd like to see them try putting me in prison, even if they do, Eddie'll just teleport me out for movie night."Jason hummed softly and scratched at his chin. "Or teleport you guys in, but then you gotta bring the TV snacks and all, and it'd just be a whole thing, y'know?"

"I guess."She smiled at him again like just those few words were enough to earn it. "Thanks Jay."

"Sure." Jason felt he should have thanked her for, for thinking of his side at all, but he couldn't see to find the words to do it right. "Speaking of snacks, you wanna break out the rest of the nachos?"

"Yeah," She stretched out again, raising her arms high above her head as she yawned. "I'll help, gotta get off this couch for a couple minutes or I'm gonna melt."

When they're in the kitchen, him reheating the remains of the sauce and her slicing up toppings, she asks him just one more time.

"You're really sure, right?"

"I'm sure Stephanie, they wanna catch me they gotta find me first, and you think I'd be here instead of down in some bunker right now of they'd ever so much as looked?" And there was a once common thought that he actually hadn't had in a while, huh, not nearly as unpleasant as it used to be. "I'll be fine."

ooo

Jason wasn't hard to find, once Dick actually looked, and he wasn't sure what to feel about that. On the one hand, he didn't have to look very long, didn't have to worry about what Jason was doing while he looked, whether what Jason was doing would make Dick's looking for him in the first place pointless. On the other, Jason was so easy to find; what did that say about the fact that he hadn't been before now?

Of course, it could have been explained away by the new… company Jason was keeping. If Stephanie was around him as much as Dick was guessing, and that Eddie kid who, according to Tim wasn't exactly a detective, maybe Jason just wanted to be easy for them to find. That explanation only worked if one discounted the fact that Spoiler and Red Devil had found Jason themselves not that long ago.

Whatever the reasons, thinking too hard on it wasn't adding anything to the situation. He'd found Jason, he'd done it quickly and that was what mattered.

He'd found Jason dressed up in something that looked a little too close to league of shadows' usual wear than was comfortable for Dick, painting circles and meaningless symbols all over the walls of a conspicuously empty meth house, one that stank of a sulphur based accelerant.

Dick announced his presence by scraping his foot against the smooth concrete ground as he approached, hoping that would enough to show Jason this wasn't supposed to be an antagonistic meeting. He kept his hands folded, away from his weapons while he waited for Jason to choose whether to acknowledge him or not.

It took a few seconds, in which Jason tensed up enough for Dick to pick up on it, but not enough that most other people would have. Jason didn't sigh, but the resigned way he turned, his light hold on the thin paintbrush dangling limply from his faux relaxed fingers, was enough of an indicator that he wanted to.

A lot of detail in that for something you plan on burning up." Dick tried, he didn't smile, but kept his tone light, his arms loose and folded and away from the escrima on his back. He could reach them in the time it took Jason to move towards him, but that wasn't really the point here.

"If you're not gonna commit, then what's the point?" Jason replied with a light flick of his wrists that sent some paint to grave the ground with a light splatter. A rusty red, the color of dried blood, because of course it was.

"Well, no one's ever accused you of doing things by half." Dick squinted at the symbols instead of the half mask and goggles hiding Jason's face, wondering at their meaning. If they had any meanings at all, they were just as likely to be something Jason and that friend of his came up with for this new game they were playing. It eased Dick's mind somewhat; that did sound more like the Jason he remembered than the one…

"What do you want Dick?" Jason huffed, seemingly not in as chatty a mood as he had been the last few times they'd met.

"This, is it gonna get anyone killed?"Dick asked, best to get that question out of the way first, not have it hanging over anything else either of them said.

"This? I don't have any poor, defenseless drug lords tied up under these tables if that's what you're asking." Jason shrugged, and moved a little ways away from Dick, to retrieve a cloth from the backpack resting against the wall and Dick tried not to make his relief too obvious. "Can't guarantee those innocent souls aren't gonna use take out their anger on the little sunflowers they got working for em though."He said as he wiped the brush clean, then stowed both away and, shuffled something about inside the bag, and finally zipped it up. "Not that I can do anything about that, got sacrificed by a blood cult if you haven't heard by now and that's the kinda thing that really gets in the way of getting in the way of drug dealers and their bosses."

Okay, so there was a little chattiness in their after all, good, Dick could work best with chattiness. "Yeah, I heard, very creative, Jason. Very well done, all that blood?" Dick puffed out a breath as he shook his head. "Must've taken a lot out of you."

"Well y'know, we all gotta suffer for our art." Jason pressed the fingers of one hand against his chest and lifted the backpack with another. "Now we got all that cleared up." He fiddled with something in his pocket and walked past Dick. "I'll be seeing ya round Dickiebird!" Fast enough that it took Dick just a fraction of a moment too late to see, there was fire spreading out all along the floor and up the circle on the wall.

"You!"Dick yelled after Jason, but the younger man was already gone. Yeah, that trick was much more amusing when it wasn't being used on Dick. He groaned and made his own escape from the soon to be burning warehouse.

He easily spotted Jason fleeing by grapple to the roof of a lower building, taking full advantage of his short head start. Dick resignedly got out his own grapple and gave chase.

"I just want to talk!"Dick called out as soon as he was close enough for Jason to hear.

"The last time you wanted to talk ya had a dozen of your super powered friends on the wing to ambush me." Jason slowed down a little to yell back over his shoulder. "So sorry if I'm a little skeptical." He got to the end of the rooftop and without a pause readied his line for a leap to the next.

"Yeah, I know." Dick reached the edge only seconds later, unlike Jason, he took the leap without first taking the time to get his line out. His break came in that his deployed faster than Jason's, retracted faster too.

Jason's tech was good, it had to be, Dick supposed, for Jason to have survived doing what they did on their own for so long, but it had been a point of pride for Batman to have the best there was out there. Dick quickly stomped down on the twinge of pain that flared up in his chest at the small reminder of Bruce, and instead focused on making full use of the advantage this tech brought him.

It paid off. Dick's line carried him across the gap faster than Jason's. They met midair, right before touchdown, Dick's arms wrapped tightly around Jason's shoulders to keep them close as they skidded across the rooftop. Jason was able to twist out of the hold not long after, but it was already too late. Dick was too close and Jason didn't have a distraction on hand to get enough distance between them for a clean escape.

"Look," Dick held out one hand placatingly, "if you can't trust me out here we can go somewhere else, anywhere you want," he brushed off some dirt he could feel digging into his cheek. "You want…" he paused, trying to remember what he could of Spoiler's story, how she and that kid had gotten him still enough to talk to them, rebreaking Jason's nose was probably not on the table here, "pancakes?"

The change in Jason's demeanor was instantaneous, his posture gone from weary to hostile in no time at all. "They have nothing to do with this, neither of them know where I am right now, so don't you dare drag them into it!" He jabbed a finger sharply at Dick, but didn't pull out a weapon as he would have expected, a minor detail, subject to change without a moment's notice, but Dick took it.

"I wasn't planning to," Dick said, filing Jason's reaction away as something else to really get into some other time "I swear, I didn't even ask Spoiler where to start looking." Something he was surer now than ever had been a good idea. I just…," 'I don't know how to talk to you anymore' he didn't say. Dick sighed and dropped both arms to his sides. "Bruce is gone, Jason."

Jason's flinch was almost imperceptible, but Dick noticed it, and Jason must have noticed that, because not long after, Dick could almost see the fight leaving his body, "I know." Jason sighed, he removed the mask and goggles. In another situation, Dick might have made a crack at the domino mask Jason had kept underneath those goggles, but not now. "And?" His tone wasn't as standoffish as Dick knew he was trying to make it.

"How are you taking it?" Dick took a chance in moving a little closer to Jason.

"I'm fine," Jason's tongue darted out to wet his lower lip and he turned away, "not like I got any reason not to be."

"Donna said, when you left them, you weren't doing so well, and with this..." Dick waved a hand in a gesture that could have encompassed the entire world, "it can't help."

"Oh you talked to Donna." Jason's lip curled in something that didn't know whether it wanted to be a grimace or a snarl. "Bet she told you aaall about what an unbearable asshole I was and how it was all she and Kyle could do to put up with me, and how relieved they were when I fucked off and let them…"

"She said something happened in one of those worlds and they were worried about you." Dick cut Jason off before he could talk himself up too much. Donna had said a lot, but as much as he said, not much of it had been on the dynamics of that team up, and Dick had a couple of ideas as to why that was. "I'm worried about you, Jason." Again, Dick moved closer, close enough now that if he'd reached out he could have touched Jason. "And I just want to know that the next I hear of you, it isn't gonna be that you died choking on blood in some filthy warehouse.

"Oh my god, so that's what this is about? Really?" Jason threw up his hands and turned his eyes skywards. "It was just a dumb prank, Dick, we barely even thought about it, and I can't believe you are, it had nothing to do with you." He pressed a fist against his mouth, his shuddery breathing quickly evening out. "Besides that, as I recall. " He removed that fist to wag a finger at Dick. "You heard I was dead before, and none of you did shit, so stop with this shit before you give Stephanie a conniption."

"Stop that." Dick ground out and fought to keep fists from forming at his sides, to keep his tone from getting any more confrontational that it already was. "You have no idea what losing you did to us."

In response, Jason held his clasped hands to his cheek and spoke in a higher pitch, "Freed you up from having to deal with the incompetent little shit and got you a precious, squeaky clean little bwodder to adore, even before that you people didn't think to invite my friend to my funeral," he scoffed and shook his head disbelievingly, " I mean, last I heard."

"You heard wrong, that's not…" Dick didn't have to figure out what he was going to say to that, he didn't get the chance.

"Whatever, news flash, so did you, I need to say it slowly?"Jason pinched his fingers together and clearly enunciated each word. "It. Was. A. Prank. You heard about a prank I'm not dead, you're released from whatever that fuck this is." He flicked a hand at Dick then moved both close to his chest. "Because I can't do this again." His voice cracked on the last word, and his breathing grew heavier as backed up, away from Dick but not far enough that Dick couldn't pick out what could almost have been hope in the set of his features. "I won't be able to handle doing this again, I'll go fucking insane if I..." He stopped himself to suck in a deep, desperate breath.

"And I can't handle burying more family, Jason," Dick, wanted to reach out, get closer now it seemed that Jason was too far from him and too close to the edge of the roof, "or having you go off the deep end because you don't want to deal with your issues." And god, did Jason have a lot of issues, if he exploded, he wasn't just going to destroy himself, but even now, it was unlikely even now that he was going to take any help Dick offered him a face value. "Everything's already going to hell with Bruce gone, and I won't be able to deal with anymore on top of this, I'm fucking exhausted, okay."Dick admitted instead, because he was and putting up pretences made that little joy worse.

So exhausted that he wasn't sure he'd be able to really help anyone right then, not even with something so small as a stubbed toe, let alone something so big as this.

Jason drew back again, his bottom lip vanishing behind his teeth and his head angling down to hide what he could of his face. It was something that belonged, again, more on the boy they'd lost than the one that had come back, open and vulnerable, and not the Red Hood, not supposed to be the Red Hood. And Dick couldn't deal with it.

This was why he'd never been able to look for Jason before, to look at him when he was there, and let himself see past all the blood and the horror of what had come back, and have to acknowledge what was hiding under it. For everything that was twisted and wrong, there were little things that weren't Dick hadn't been able to handle that either.

"Listen." Dick did move forward, and past Jason, for the railing that ran along the edge of the roof. Feeling his exhaustion more now than he had let himself in a while, Dick sat down on the thin steel bar. "I don't know what you've been doing all this time, what you've been through between now, and when we buried you," Dick paused to rake a hand through his hair just to move something. "I can't know, and I'm not going to try and convince you I understand." He looked up and caught Jason's eyes, refused to look away. "But you can't know everything about me either, and wouldn't ask you to be able to do something that impossible, just don't try to pretend you do, or that you're the only one whose life it a shit storm right now."

For a long moment, Jason watched Dick, maybe looking for something, or waiting for something, Maybe he wasn't really looking at Dick at all. Whatever it was, when it was over, Jason sighed and closed the few feet between them to join Dick on the railing. "What do you want me to do Dick? Contrary to what you might have heard, I don't really know a demon who can bring Bruce back for you, and even if I did, I might now have a soul to trade anymore."

With a groan, Dick shook his head. "That's not funny."

"I'm only half kidding."Jason shrugged.

"This isn't even about Bruce anymore, he's gone, and we can't live our lives like he's coming back." Dick said, turning his gaze to the constant screaming of a city they were in. It was tempting, to think that way, when it had happened to so many before, when he was sitting next to someone it had happened to. But still, there were so many more who were gone, who would stay gone, and Dick wasn't suffocating himself holding his breath for them to come back either. "I'm not asking for you to let everything go, just, put it away for now, I'll meet you halfway and maybe we can help each other through it like normal people?" Like a normal family, he might have wanted to say instead, but even for him that was too much right now.

"I don't need your help with anything, I'm fine." Jason kicked at the side of the building and for a split second, Dick's disappointment outweighed his exhaustion. "But uh…" Jason chewed on his lips again, turned away tapped the tips of his fingers against the railing, "if you really need mine for some reason you can ask Spoiler for my number, or just find me again, doesn't look like you had much trouble with that". He hopped to his feet and unclipped his mask and goggled from his belt and I'll uh, see what I can do."

"Thank you." Dick felt a weight lift off him, and he was sure it showed pretty clearly in the way he let himself relax more against his perch. He didn't care if Jason saw how relieved he was to have that, "And you'll stay out of trouble for a while?"

"Now you're pushing your luck." Jason rolled his eyes as he set the mask over his face. "Yeah, sure for a while." The next part he muttered just within hearing range, "Wasn't in a killing mood anyways."

"Not what I meant, but thanks Jason." Dick had to raise his voice a little for it to reach Jason clearly, him having already moved away some.

"I know what you meant. If that's all, can I go now?" Seeing as how Jason was already back walking away, Dick's answer to the question didn't really matter. "Not like I didn't enjoy this horrible little chat, but I got some fake demon circles to spray paint on some ceilings in some pig's blood."

"Be careful." Dick called after Jason before he could grapple away again.

Jason grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, waved, and then he was gone. For the first time in a long time, thinking about what his brother could have been getting up to didn't fill him with sadness for what could have been, or dread for what would. It could almost make him smile.

At least something had finally gone right.


	7. The Betrayal

It wasn't like Eddie went to Gotham planning on staying there as long or as often as he did, he'd swear whenever anyone asked him, that he'd just lost track of time. He spent one night there, watching horribly made movies with Jason until Jason fell asleep, by the time he realized it, Eddie was tired too and in any case, it was rude to leave without saying goodbye first. Even more rude to wake Jason up just to say goodbye and then leave. Aunt Marla had wanted Eddie to try keeping his manners after all. So Eddie let himself fall asleep there on the fluffy, partly singed carpet in front of the couch.

Then Spoiler – Stephanie, had shown up. That had been a little awkward, sure but they got over it pretty fast and stayed for breakfast, because slicing up fruit while Jason mixed up some waffle batter was really the least he could do after Jason had carried him all the way to his safehouse when he'd passed out the night before.

It just carried on like that. Just staying a couple hours until lunch or to show Jason this video game or that comic series, or to 'catch up' some more. There was just so much to catch up on, it was unbelievable. It wasn't quite as easy as it had been when it had been writing all his thoughts on a piece of paper and sending them across the country, but still so much easier than it had been since he and Dan had stopped talking.Not having to lie, or give context for than one stupid thing he'd thought would be fun when he was a kid, because Jason already knew why Eddie had set that one trailer on fire that one time, because Eddie had already told him years ago, and Jason remembered.

Eddie hadn't even realized he'd only been back to the tower eight times in the past month; half of those just to pick up something to bring over to Jason's and twice to hang out with Jaime on his Titans weekends. When Eddie went back just wasn't something that came up in conversation with Jason, there was too much else to do.

In the end, it was Stephanie who actually brought it up when she crashed their uno game on her open invitation before her nightly patrol.

"So, what does Eddie just live here now?" She asked as she brooded over the large number of cards in her hands.

"No." Jason scoffed offhandedly, too focused on his own cards to look at either her or Eddie. "If I had a Titan living with me I'da been arrested by now." He dropped a yellow two in the pile at the center of the kitchen island. "He's a superhero you know, it's a rule."

Stephanie shrugged and downed about a quarter of her lemonade. " And hey, no judgy." She flapped a hand Eddie's way. "It's just you're here every time I show up."

"Maybe you're here every time I show up." Eddie tossed out a blue two, squinting his eyes at her. "Are you living here, Stephanie?"

"Nice try," She rolled her eyes. "But I'm pretty sure that's not my crap lying all over the floor." She plucked a blue four out of her stack and dropped it on the pile.

Eddie looked around at the little apartment, and, okay a lot of his stuff had accumulated over the month. Stuff that he realized there really wasn't enough room for now that he compared it to how, bare and orderly the place had been when he'd first seen it.

"That could be Jason's stuff." Eddie busied himself organizing his cards.

"Somehow, I don't think so." She stood up the fallen Captain Carrot figure that had lain between them on the kitchen island.

Jason hummed agreeably as he dropped a down a reverse card, and Steph swore softly. "If it were my crap it wouldn't be lying all over the floor."

"That's a collectable." Eddie snatched it from her with a huff and made a show of wiping it down, as though she'd smeared something gross all over it before setting it down in a place of prominence before their card pile.

"Oh, I know." She nodded seriously. Staring off into the distance, she mimicked a shudder. "Trust me, I know." She it took her three draws before she had a blue card to toss out, she glared at poor Captain Carrot like it was his fault.

"I still can't believe that." Eddie brought out a hand to shield the figure from her unkind gaze as he added his own offering. "And after all the crap he gave me for being a fanboy."

"We hate most in other the flaws we observe in ourselves." Jason intoned sagely as he dropped another card, he was down to three now.

"Yeah, then what about him do you hate about yourself Jason?" Stephanie grinned, propping her head in her hands and leaning towards him.

"Nothing, I love myself, and for insinuating otherwise, you don't get any cake." He jabbed a finger at her.

"I gotta be out by the time that's done anyway" she rolled her eyes, "and Eddie will save me some, right?" She winked at him.

"Yeah, I'm a superhero Jason, remember?" Eddie mimicked Stephanie's position. "I gotta torment you somehow, it's a rule."

"This is why neither of you get to live with me and neither of you get cake." Jason folded his arms with a very put upon, very woe filled huff. "Can't trust anyone." Down to two cards as of this turn. Eddie was going to have to pull out his ace in the hole soon if he wanted to win this.

"Oh, wait up, before I forget why I stopped by here." Steph added dropped an appropriate card, then dug around in the many pockets afforded her by her Spoiler outfit.

"You mean it wasn't to eat all of our food and lose at uno?" Jason smirked and raised his lemonade glass for a sip.

"Our food." Steph's scoff prompted Eddie to look again at the maybe, sort of, comparative mess his stuff had made of Jason's little apartment. "We all know everyone at this table loves me." She batted her eyes at them and finally located what she'd been searching her pockets for; she dropped a slip of paper with a number scrawled across it onto the pile. "Since you're all trucey, buddy and whatever, with Dick having Jays number, he asked me to pass on his."

"Great." Jason drawled sarcastically and plucked the paper up while Eddie repeated the word 'trucey' under his breath. Jason didn't give the number so much as a glance before scrunching it up and tossing it out the open window – or, as Eddie had taken to calling it, the Spoiler entry point. "Mission accomplished soldier."

"Aw come on," Steph exclaimed as she threw her hands up. "I coulda prank called that."

"Prank calling Nightwing." Eddie said softly, nodding in solidarity with her and raising his fist in invitation for her to bump. Considering his own… tumultuous history with his own family and family like figures, along with everything Jason had been though, Eddie wasn't going to push Jason into any kind of reconciliation; that didn't meant he wasn't going to join in on the joke. Steph didn't hesitate on reciprocating the gesture, and Eddie couldn't help but smile. It was kind of nice, being around someone who didn't think twice about little things like that.

"Not in this house." Jason stabbed a finger at the tabletop. "I only agreed to be 'trucey'," here he brought up both hands to make finger quotes around the word, "because he was acting fucking weird, freaked me the hell out is what he did."

"Aw, was he," Eddie paused sharply, rested a hand on Jason's shoulder and weighed his next word down with disbelief, "nice to you?"

"It was awful," Jason sniffled and nodded and Stephanie chuckled quietly throughout it.

"Well Jayce." Eddie puffed out his cheeks with the next breath he released and patted Jason's shoulder once before he removed the hand. "I promise not to be nice to you from here on out, okay." He ran a finger along the edge of his prized card.

"Oka…" Jason sat up straight weepiness miraculously vanished, he must have noticed something of what Eddie was doing, because he narrowed his eyes and clutched those two remaining cards to his chest. "Hey I was joking earlier about not trusting you that was pretty clear, right?"

"I'm sorry Jason." Eddie shook his head in resignation, and slowly, torturously slid the card from it's amongst its brethren. "It's too late for that; the time for joking is over."

"You wouldn't." Steph gasped, holding her fan of cards over her gaping mouth like she was a scandalized Victorian lady.

"Oh, but I would." Eddie chuckled deep in his throat, the sound reverberating menacingly about the small space.

"Eddie, KD, don't come on, you're my best friend, you know how much I love you." He pressed his hands together. "I'm so close to winning, we," he waved a hand between the two of them, "are so close to winning."

"It's RD now!" Eddie slammed the card down on the table, "And there is no we in uno."

"No." Jason looked at the draw four card Eddie had laid out like it was a death sentence, sinking in on his chair, he whispered, as thought raising his voice any higher was too much of a task. "How could you, I've never felt so betrayed."

"I'm sorry, it had to be done, you were growing too powerful." Eddie turned from the scene as he spoke, as Jason began his drawing of new cards, leaving him with more than Eddie's four.

The whole while, Stephanie's attempts, and utter failure at keeping her laughter hidden behind her cards served as the background music to their altercation. "Oh my god." She said breathily, "These kinds of game nights are the best things ever, we should make this a thing too, I love you guys so much."

"Well I hate everybody." Jason huffed back and her and assumed a hunched over position."

"I know you do." She reached over to pinch at Jason's cheek, and he couldn't hold back the flicker of a smile when he huffed – again – and batted her hand away.

Eddie snicker also refused to be denied and soon they were all chuckling over their cards again. He'd conceded that game nights were almost the best thing ever. Movie nights still took top billing, always. He didn't even think about the 'whether or not he was living here' thing all night.


End file.
